IPOA details how private protection affects security in Kenya

- Police officers deployed to VIP private protection are found to be doing work civilians could do

-Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has said this causes a breach to national security in Kenya

- IPOA recommends that these officers be redeployed back to service in the interest of national security

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has revealed that the number of bodyguards VIPs additionally ask to be assigned aside from the number they are entitled to causes a security shortage in Kenya.

According to findings in the Ransley Report, there are about 20,000 VIPs in the country including senior government officials including president and his deputy, county bosses and leaders,judges, as well as government and private buildings and envoys who all have private security.

They are said to take up about 10% of the entire police force for their private protection.

IPOA Chairman Macharia Njeru however said there were no clear policies on allocating bodyguards to VIPs or certain buildings.

He also said that it was reasons such as these that pushed crime rates up and made the public undermine the police service.

According to the Daily Nation, IPOA noted that these officers should be redeployed in the interest of national security instead of protecting VIPs who don't even need body guards.

Njeru sounded the alarm after an increase in the manner in which these body guards and civilian gun holders were misusing their firearms.

The Oversight Authority continues to compile this report detailing on the how and why of body guard allocation to VIPs in Kenya which will be handed over to Interior and Coordination of National Government Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaisserry.

According to the Daily Nation, the most guarded governors in the country are Kiambu's william Kabogo, Nakuru's Kinuthia Mbugua with 10 who is said to have inherited his security detail from his days as a former AP commandant and Nairobi's Dr Evans Kidero with 16 and many other untrained personnel numbering in the 20s.

In Kenya, one VIP is assigned seven body guards to their security detail but these people tend to use their connections in high places to get additional security added to them.

Governors in Kenya are required by law to have only five bodyguards up from two, of whom three are for their residences and two for their mobility. Their deputies are entitled to one armed guard but this is not the case as well.

Politicians across the board are constitutionally assigned an average of two, but some some are said to enjoy 10 armed guards at the expense of the tax payers. Prison warders are also said to be redeployed to private protection, services they are not trained in.

Members of County Assemblies sometime back joined in the clamor by demanding for private security citing that they worked close to the people more than the top leaders, and therefore face more hostility than them.

Leaders might however be assigned more security in the event that they reside or work in terror prone areas. After this declines, part of the security is withdrawn from VIP protection duties.

The Daily Nation is also quoted as saying that the police to population ratio in the country stands at one for every 850 Kenyans which is against the United Nations' recommended standard of an officer for every 400 citizens.